003 - The Open Gate

I recently worked my way through the short book, The Open Gate. It is a collection of prayers written by the author (David Adam) and various other famous figures from church history. The book offers everything from short prayers to long prayers. Prayers for confession, worship, intercession, and thanks. Adam does an excellent job compiling these prayers in practical sections that someone could turn to whenever needed.

The only issue I take with this book is that it never makes it known that pre-written prayers are a good starting point, but don't work well for the entirety of your prayer time. One could easily pick up this book and believe that if they read one of the prayers each day God will be happy with them. It creates a false idea that prayer needs to be formal and written by one of the professionals. But if one is willing to simply use the book as a catalyst for their prayer life they will find that enriches and deepens their time with the Creator.